Between These Walls
by Mia-Zeklos
Summary: Ianto has his fears. Jack tries to do the best he can to help.


**Author's Notes: This was written by a prompt and there were really a lot of firsts that went into it, so I'd love to know what you guys think. I haven't proofread much because it's late at night, so please forgive any typos.**

Ianto had been just getting ready for yet another round of 'I've got work to do, Jack, we can't do this now,' when the lights went out.

They both stiffened, blinded by the complete darkness of the Archives, before the red emergency lights flickered on above them.

"Lockdown," Jack whispered as he looked around them. He tapped his comm. "Gwen? Owen? What's happened?"

Ianto had turned his device on as well by the time Gwen's snort of annoyance reached them. "Tosh accidentally disabled the antivirus of the entire Mainframe, which then led to everything going off and... well, I'm sure you can see it now."

"Where are you?" Jack asked, relief written all over his features that the problem wasn't serious.

"We're all in the main Hub. What about you? And where's Ianto?"

"He's with me," Jack hurried to assure her. "We're fine, but– I think we've got a little problem."

"What kind of a problem?" Gwen asked warily and Ianto found himself listening as well.

"We're in storage room fifteen in the Archives," Jack started as he turned the key in the lock and pressed the door forwards, to no avail, "and it was locked when the lockdown started. And that means that, at least for the time being, it remains locked until we're out of it."

"Which is when exactly?" Ianto put in through gritted teeth.

This time it was Tosh who stepped in. "For an alert of that level? I'd say about two hours."

Fantastic.

 **o.O.o**

Despite the lack of proper lights, Ianto had gone on with his archiving. He squinted against the documents and reports and dutifully kept arranging them in alphabetical order after he'd written the date of the last check.

"You'll strain your eyes," Jack commented when they were about half an hour into the lockdown. Ianto shrugged wordlessly and Jack stood up from the floor, holding his wrists in place. "Hey, what's up with you?" He asked with a small smile. "You can finish this after we're out of this, right? I thought we could – since we're stuck here anyway – we could use the personal space the fun way."

Ianto gave him a strained smile. "I think I'll pass."

"It's not like you to resist such an opportunity," Jack teased. "There's no one to walk in on us here – it's why I locked the door, after all – and you haven't had sex in nearly twelve hours."

Which, given that it was three in the morning, meant that they'd been up all night, but that had never stopped Ianto before. The fact stood that his lover wasn't a fan of going too long without being touched in any way at all.

"I don't have time for this, Jack," Ianto snapped, a slight tremor to his voice, and the Captain turned him around to look at him.

"Okay, Ianto, looks like we'll be trapped here for a while... Care to tell me what's wrong?"

"I'm fine," Ianto replied and sat down in the office chair that every room in the Archives was supplied with. "Really, I am," he insisted when Jack looked doubtful.

"Something's bothering you," Jack started, putting a hand on his shoulder. "And while I won't pester you anymore if you really don't want me to know, I think that you'll feel better if you share it."

Ianto gave a short, shaky laugh. "I'll have you know that it's fairly pathetic."

Jack could tell that he wasn't resisting anymore and was making an interlude instead, so he didn't comment.

"I hate small spaces," Ianto said, voice quiet and unexpectedly vulnerable. "I'm claustrophobic, okay?" he added when there was no reaction. "I know it's ridiculous, and that we're facing much greater threats every day and all that, but it's always been like that."

"It's not ridiculous," Jack tried to soothe him. "It's pretty common, actually." When he realised that Ianto would be forced to remain here for the next hour and a half and that it was mostly his fault, Jack's expression melted into one of apology. "I'm sorry," he added hesitantly, "if I'd known, I'd never have locked us in here."

"It's not your fault," Ianto said, his eyes focused with a great deal of determination on a spot somewhere behind Jack's shoulder. "You couldn't have known."

With a sigh, Jack returned to his original spot on the floor. There wasn't much either of them could do about it now; not with the lockdown still active. There was still, of course, the first path to distraction that always came to mind...

"Want me to take your mind off it?" he offered and Ianto threw him a look of disbelief. "I'm serious," Jack persisted. "You always say that I can make you stop thinking; could as well try it now."

"I can't believe you can think about this _now_ ," Ianto said, his breathing just a little more irregular than it had been minutes ago. "You have no idea what this is like."

"No, I don't," Jack admitted, shifting enough to get closer to the younger man. "But that doesn't mean that I don't know how you tick." At Ianto's curt laugh, he gave him a lopsided smile. "Would you like to see me try?"

Ianto responded with an exaggerated sigh before nodding. "Go ahead," he said and Jack grinned when he saw him relax into his chair. "And you better make it good!"

"You wound me, Ianto Jones," Jack quipped before positioning himself by Ianto's side. "Close your eyes."

"It'll be a pleasure," Ianto muttered but complied nevertheless, his eyes falling shut obediently.

"Perfect," Jack encouraged. "Now try to relax as much as possible. Don't think of anything in this room or beyond it; just focus on my voice."

Ianto gave a small, shaky nod and while he remained just as stiff under Jack's hands as before, there was definitely some progress being made – at least his breathing had calmed down.

"You're doing great," Jack murmured, lips brushing over his lover's ear, and he kissed Ianto's lips when they curled into a smile. "Let's take it all off of your mind."

"I'm not sure even you can be capable of that, Jack," Ianto breathed and then – even though his eyes were closed – his eyelids fluttered as his next sentence left him in a sigh. Jack continued his ministrations – which mostly consisted of the gentle pressure he was applying over his crotch – and took in his face, quietly admiring all there was to see.

Ianto's eyelashes trembled like a butterfly's wings, casting shadows down his clearly defined cheekbones; the lines of his face even sharper under the glare of the emergency lights. His lips, a temptingly deep pink, were open only halfway and it was only then – on a sharp intake of breath on Ianto's side – that Jack realised just how much he'd like to make him a very different kind of breathless.

Ianto gave a delicious little whine of discontent when Jack's hand let go of him. "Where are you going?" he asked, voice just a bit strained, and Jack revelled in it as he fell to his knees.

"Right here," he soothed and he knew that the small room was really good at containing each and every sound when Ianto responded with a laugh.

"You enjoy being down there too much to miss the opportunity now, don't you?" Ianto teased and Jack decided to take it as a good sign – it meant that he was about as relaxed as Jack could get him.

"It's not like you don't enjoy it," Jack retorted indignantly and his hands reached up to Ianto's belt where it was hidden by his suit jacket.

There was something undoubtedly wonderful about suits, Jack thought in passing, and it wasn't just how good Ianto made them look. It was in the way they looked in moments like this – when Ianto was dishevelled and restless and everything was just a bit out of place – the way his jacket was slightly open, his tie was askew and Jack could see just a sliver of skin above his shirt collar; the way his waistcoat tightened around his body with every heaving breath. And, of course, it was impossible to miss the best part – the unseemly bulge in his pressed trousers and the roughness of his belt under Jack's fingers as he undid it. It was the usual uprightness of it that affected him so much – the fact that he was doing this. He was making Ianto's flawless suit rumpled and he was rumpling Ianto himself at the same time until he was messy and ruined and breathtaking under his touch.

"Jack," Ianto whispered, more of a statement than anything else, and yet it was clear that he was begging. That was another thing Jack couldn't seem to get enough of – Ianto's voice when he was aroused. It was raw and deep and so devastatingly sexy that Jack had to restrain himself from getting him out of that chair and over the desk. This was about Ianto, though, and what he needed, and right now he knew precisely what to do about it.

"I know," he assured. "I'm getting there."

"Good," Ianto said, breathing hitched with anticipation.

Jack unbuttoned his trousers and lowered the zipper with deliberately slow movements, relishing in his lover's agitation. "We've got plenty of time," he whispered, letting his breath ghost over Ianto's newly-bare skin and allowed himself a chuckle when Ianto let out a soft moan. "No need to hurry."

"I beg to differ," Ianto said through gritted teeth and Jack outright laughed at how strained his voice sounded.

"You're lucky you're too pretty for me to resist," Jack said. He knew it was about time he conceded defeat and he patted Ianto's thigh. "Lift up." Once he did, Jack slid his trousers along with his underwear down until they pooled around Ianto's ankles. He took one of Ianto's hands where it was loosely gripping the seat of the chair and kissed his fingertips before letting him go and leaning in to press another kiss on his cock.

"You're a ridiculous man, Jack Harkness," Ianto said on yet another whimper and Jack smiled wickedly, unseen because of his command on his lover's closed eyes.

"You love it," he retorted. "And I can tell, you know. If there's one thing I'm all too happy to catalogue, it's your physical response to any action I initiate."

"Good to know you're putting that mind to good use," Ianto mumbled, pushing (almost subconsciously, Jack suspected) his entire lower body closer to him.

The Captain took pity of him and leant even closer, teasing the head of Ianto's cock with the tip of his tongue. At his lover's kiss, he repeated the caress and then followed it with teasing him a bit with his teeth. Ianto loved it, as he knew from previous – and rather enjoyable – research and it showed now as he let out a positively desperate little noise deep into his throat.

For the first time since his slow seduction had started, Jack let himself fully act upon his desires and took Ianto as deep as he could, closing his own eyes as bliss overtook him.

The truth was, he loved this more than anything else. He vaguely suspected that he enjoyed it more than Ianto did and while that would have surprised most people; Jack knew that they both loved it as it was. Ianto loved expressing himself through his hands and his kisses and his entire body and he definitely favoured it over words, and Jack was used to celebrating human nature through sex – it was the ultimate love letter, he thought, to write everything he felt with the traces from his fingertips.

One of Ianto's hands had found his hair by now and his fingers were buried in it; their grip getting firmer with every pull of Jack's mouth and every loving suck around his cock. He mumbled words of encouragement, the sweet nonsense that often plagued the speech of lovers in the throes of passion, and Jack could feel himself shivering under the onslaught of sensations.

He reached down blindly, sneaking his hand into his own trousers to find some much-needed relief. He let out a choked sob, muffled around Ianto's heated flesh, and felt Ianto's cock twitch in his mouth. He was already hard – had been for the last twenty minutes – and this was enough to stimulate him even further until it was all just on the edge of too much; he was hanging on the edge of too many sensations at once and he was afraid that once he reached the peak, they'd overwhelm him completely. He pulled back just slightly, bracing himself just in time for his lover to cry out softly and come copiously down his throat. It only made him speed up his hand over his own cock until he came as well, a wave of pleasure so intense it almost made him lose contact with the world around him.

Fortunately, there was still something he was looking forward to and it made him focus once more. There was this little quirk about Ianto's body that Jack had learnt to expect early into their relationship – the aftershocks of his orgasm always brought a little more of his come and Jack smiled as he took that in as well, finally pulling away to look up at his lover. His knees were protesting of their prolonged exposure to the concrete of the basement floor and his mouth was sore and yet he felt a strange sort of satisfaction as he watched Ianto's face relax completely.

He stood up and leant on the edge of the desk, mindful of the files that Ianto had devotedly put into order only half an hour ago.

"Hey," he whispered gently when his lover didn't show any signs of coherence. "Wakey-wakey."

"Huh?" Ianto's eyes blinked open, wide an almost pigmentless under the unusual lightning. "Thank you, Jack," he added once he came to himself. "I know what you were trying to do and... well, I think it's obvious that it worked." Ianto's laughter was uncharacteristically nervous.

"You know that you can just tell me this stuff, yeah?" Jack asked, ruffling his hair and Ianto nodded. "When something's bothering you, you can tell me. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," Ianto nodded, and his smile was far more sincere – and more relaxed – now. "Now I do."


End file.
